Willa Blythe Baker, PhD is the founder and spiritual director of Natural Dharma Fellowship and its retreat center Wonderwell Mountain Refuge in Springfield, NH. She was authorized as a lineage holder (lama) in the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism after twelve years of monastic training and two consecutive three-year retreats.  She was Visiting Lecturer in Buddhist Ministry at Harvard Divinity School from 2013 to 2017.  She is a member of Clark University’s Council of the Uncertain Human Future, sits on the Advisory Board for One Earth Sangha, and is on the contemplative faculty of the Mind and Life Institute.

Willa is the author of several books including The Wakeful Body: Somatic Mindfulness as a Path to Freedom (Shambhala Publications, 2021), The Arts of Contemplative Care (with Dr. Cheryl Giles, Wisdom Publications, 2012) and Everyday Dharma (Quest Books, 2009). She is the translator (Tibetan to English) of Taranatha’s Lamrim Essence of Ambrosia: A Guide to Buddhist Contemplations (Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 2005). Her articles have appeared in Lion’s Roar, Buddhadharma Magazine, Tricycle Magazine, Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, Journal of Buddhist-Christian Studies, The Tibet Journal and a number of anthologies. She is currently working on a translation of a memoir by the Dzogchen master Jigme Lingpa.